Twenty participants have advanced to the next phase of the #EnergyInYourHustle challenge, a social media challenge that had participants creatively showcase their everyday hustle with Amber Energy Drink.
The shortlisted finalists were selected based on their ability to capture their hustle in a compelling way:
Soji Ayoola
Nuel Davidson Emmanuel
Jumah Kudus
Certified Photography
Xter Berry
Stephanie Mozimo
Fasanmi Afolabi
Grace Oduokene
Annabel Gift Nwoko
Naomi
David Okemiri
Iyke Divine
Oluwadara Oluyemi Ooreofe
Wordiet
Nkana Mma
T9 Grafix
Lotanna Odiyi
Chinaza Ezeani
Lawrence Okeke and
Babatunde Taiwo Ipaye
Speaking on the challenge, the General Manager, Amber Drinks Limited, Lola Adedeji had this to say,
“We decided to introduce this challenge to support the different hustles of young Nigerians and we are super excited at the impressive entries we received. It is evident that Nigerians are diligent and progressively dog-headed to make lemonade out of the lemons life offers them. It really is a commendable attribute for we Nigerians. This is why we just had to show our support”
The shortlisted finalists will be posted on the brand’s social media pages for an online voting process where the top three finalists will emerge. Voting starts on the 20th of January and ends on the 30th of January, 2021. Winners will be rewarded with N1,000,000.00, N500,000.00 and N300,000.00 for the first, second and third place respectively.
LAGOS/DALLAS – Farmers in Nigeria, the first country where Fall Armyworm (FAW) was detected in Africa in 2016, will soon get access to a biological tool that will prevent an infestation of the invasive pest.
The product which is called Fawligen belongs to the new IRAC mode of action Group 31 (host-specific occluded pathogenic viruses). It contains a nucleopolyhedrovirus specific to the Fall Armyworm pest and has been undergoing several regulatory trials and evaluations across several African countries since early 2018.
To ensure that Farmers in Nigeria which has the largest maize acreage in Africa of 5 million hectares can protect their crops from severe injury and economic damage caused by the FAW infestation, Golden Agri Inputs Limited (GAIL), a member of the FMN Group have partnered with AgBiTech as its exclusive distributor for Fawligen in the country.
Commenting on the partnership, Boye Olusanya, the Group Managing Director, FMN said:
“We will continue to pursue partnerships in all areas of our core competence, particularly in Agribusiness, where we hope to further strengthen our leadership position. I believe this partnership with AgBiTech is especially important because it offers farmers an efficient option of pest management products that prevent yield losses.”
“Nigerian farmers who are looking to protect their investments will be happy to learn that FAWLIGEN is a terrific addition to a lineup of products under GAIL/FMN that have been developed to do just that.”
Fawligen is manufactured by the global leader and innovator in biological pest control, AgBiTech LLC. According to Dr. Shachi Gurumayum, Head of Africa & South Asia for AgBiTech, “Fawligen has been tested and evaluated by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for two consecutive years in Nigeria. Having access to a safe and effective biological control for FAW will be a welcome relief to many of the Nigerian farmers affected by FAW”.
AgBiTech CEO Adriano Vilas-Boas says the company continues to invest in leading products and international expansion. “This partnership in Nigeria is a very important step for AgBiTech. The uniqueness of our Fawligen leveraged by the robust GAIL/FMN market platform will bring Nigerian growers a valuable choice to effectively and sustainably manage FAW” he says. “We work hard to offer a mainstream foundational insecticide tool worldwide.
Our current commercial focus is in the US, Brazil, Paraguay, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and multiple countries in Africa like Nigeria, Zambia, and Ivory Coast with new markets under review.”
By Andrew Bourne, Region Manager, Africa, Zoho Corporation
As businesses look to overcome the challenges of 2020, they’ll have a number of goals in mind. For some, it will be about survival while others will work towards rebuilding and reversing any losses they might have made in 2020. Whatever state a business finds itself in this year, it cannot afford to ignore data privacy as a key priority especially, now that global and local news networks are covering online privacy quite extensively.
In fact, if a business really cares about having a successful 2021, it needs to prioritise data privacy as its number one focus. Doing so won’t only help businesses side-step some of the issues and expenses associated with data breaches, it’ll also help increase brand confidence among customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Andrew Bourne, Region Manager, Africa, Zoho Corporation – www.brandspurng.com
Employee privacy should hold the same importance as customer data privacy
Safeguarding employee privacy is becoming critical in a world that’s going all-digital, in order to cater to an increasingly mobile and highly distributed workforce. A recommended step for a privacy-first approach is making sure that your employees’ personal information is stored in a secure, encrypted server.
Aside from that, here are a few basic practices you can follow to ensure the secure handling of employees’ personal data:
1) Constantly communicate and ensure your employees are always in the know – When onboarding new employees and whenever changes are made to policies, employers should clearly spell out their data collection and monitoring practices. Businesses should require employees to review the policy and also consider posting a detailed ‘privacy notice’ on internal forums for quick reference.
If your recently instituted COVID-based health and wellness programmes include the additional collection of new datasets like travel history and family health statuses, then the general consent proffered by the employment contract might not suffice. Plan beforehand and try to obtain specific consent from employees through advance notices.
2) Conduct privacy impact assessments for your third-party technologies – As we become more reliant on third-party video conferencing tools and remote collaboration applications like Zoom, Slack, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, it becomes necessary to reevaluate the vendors’ privacy policies and understand how these platforms handle your employees’ data. In most cases, the long-winded privacy statements never give us a clear picture of what the tech giants do with the collected data or if they employ safety measures such as end-to-end encryption and host-proof hosting.
3) Deploy employee monitoring tools judiciously – Remote working has sparked an ethical debate about whether employers should use remote monitoring software to supervise workforce productivity levels. Today, we have tools that randomly take screenshots of employees’ device screens and even monitor how much time they spend on certain websites.
While workplace analytics is critical to scrutinise collaboration patterns and will inevitably become an integral part of HRM strategies, imposing privacy-invasive tools into your employees’ life can result in a severe backlash down the line. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario either. In October just last year, H&M was fined US$41-million for violating its workers’ privacy.
The all-seeing eye
While it is vitally important to know what is going on in your business, using potentially invasive monitoring tools to measure work hours or monitor background activity doesn’t instil confidence or trust in employees.
It’s not a perfect metric to measure productivity and work effectiveness. Instead, consider quantifying workforce performance based on output quality and timely accomplishments and for any form of monitoring, it always is best to provide your employees with an opt-in before execution.
Protecting your most valuable asset
It’s become almost a cliche to say that employees are your most valuable asset. Truth is, they really are. By protecting the privacy of your employees, you demonstrate your commitment to them as an employer and cement a culture of company loyalty. This, in turn, will make it simpler to attract and retain top talent, something that’s vital to remaining competitive.
Andrew Bourne is Zoho’s Regional Manager for the Africa region and is based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has more than 15 years of experience in sales and marketing and has spent the last five years focusing on the implementation and testing of various business technologies. He is very passionate about Zoho and has exceptional insight into the business and marketing world.
With 45+ apps in nearly every major business category, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting and back-office operations, and an array of productivity and collaboration tools, Zoho Corporation is one of the world’s most prolific technology companies.
Zoho is privately held and profitable, with more than 9 000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Austin, Texas. with international headquarters in Chennai, India. Additional offices are in the United States, India, Japan, China, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates.
More than 50 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself.
Executive Director, Sahara Group, Temitope Shonubi has said the energy conglomerate’s impressive growth trajectory since 1996 has been driven by knowledge, business integrity, humility, diverse people and robust global network.
“These past 25 years, knowledge has been the empowering tool for Sahara Group, business integrity our greatest asset, humility our utmost ethos, diverse people and network our greatest value,” he asserted while unveiling Sahara’s 25th-anniversary logo and the Group’s plan for the future.
Shonubi said Sahara had since disrupted previously held notions that put looking to Africa for the implementation of global energy solutions beyond imagination. According to him, since its inception, Sahara has deployed “transformational energy initiatives” to become a conglomerate with a proud African heritage and vast operations in Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East Asia.
“Today, the narrative is rapidly changing with Sahara at the vanguard of the transformational story from Africa to the world. Founded in 1996 with an initial focus on Oil trading, Sahara Group is widely regarded as a leading energy conglomerate renowned for championing capacity building and promoting the ‘best in Africa for Africa’ to the world narrative globally,” he affirmed.
Shonubi said Sahara would increase its investment in technology, artificial intelligence, and human capital transformation as critical drivers of its next expansion phase, adding that innovation will define Sahara’s brand positioning and offering In the coming years.
“For us at Sahara, it has been 25 years of instituting a stamp of distinction. Like most start-ups, we were chasers then followers, and today are the dream actualized corporation.
It is much more expensive and difficult to be a trailblazer, defying the impossible to emerge as an enterprise that creates value innovatively, responsibly, and sustainably. Still, at Sahara, we are focused on remarkable growth and grateful for the opportunity to serve and bring energy to life across global markets.”
Temitope Shonubi, Executive Director, Sahara Group | www.brandspurng.com
Sahara plans to mark its 25th anniversary with several events and activities all through 2021 with the theme, “Harnessing Safe energy today.” Emphasis will be on promoting the “capacity to do and achieve positive and sustainable transformation” in the energy sector.
An analysis of Sahara’s operational model shows that creating a sustainable economic, social, and governance impact has remained central to Sahara’s corporate strategy. The conglomerate has grown its operations to achieve annual revenues in excess of $10 billion, with over 4000 employees and operations in over 40 countries.
“Sahara’s focus is on continuous improvement, operational efficiency, and sustainability. We plan to deploy best-in-class Terminal Automation System (TAS) for efficient terminal operations in the oil & gas sector, Plant Data Visualization System (PDVS) for enhanced remote monitoring of plant operations, Customer Energy Management (CEM), and GIS-based Network Monitoring System (GNMS) for customer-centric power distribution & data management services,” said Shonubi.
The Group considers the activities of the Sahara Foundation as one of its most cherished accomplishments.
Following its initial partnership with the Carter Centre to eradicate guinea worm disease in Nigeria, Sahara Foundation has over the years, emerged as a global promoter of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with over 2,000,000 (two million) beneficiaries across its locations through interventions in Health, Education, Capacity Building, and lately, Extrapreneurship – a concept that promotes opportunities for social innovators and entrepreneurs.
In 2015, the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), through the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG-F) established the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) as a pivotal platform for business leaders opportunity to contribute to extraordinary social impact and cultivate partnerships of tremendous transformative capacity.
From an initial list of 100 shortlisted global multinational companies, the United Nations SDG-F selected 13 companies and inaugurated them in Madrid. Within the African continent, Sahara Group was one of the only two companies that made the final selection.
In line with its commitment to supporting growing global demand for safe and clean energy and the shift towards a lower carbon footprint, Sahara and the UNDP in 2019 entered into a partnership to promote access to clean and affordable energy in Africa, with a target of providing access to clean and affordable energy to over 650 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Sahara Group remains passionate about green energy and environmental conservation.
Our Green Life project, aimed at driving energy and ecological conservation initiatives across our business operations and partnerships, saw the Group pioneer the commencement of an electronic billing system (e-billing) at Ikeja Electric Plc, the Group’s power distribution arm to promote environmental conservation in the energy sector,” Shonubi said.
To reinforce its commitment to clean energy initiatives, Sahara Group also initiated the use of electric buggies and bicycles at its Egbin Power, Africa’s largest privately-owned Power Plant, with plans to replicate same at other operational facilities across the Group.
Electric buggies at Egbin Power Plant | www.brandspurng.com
Shonubi said Sahara’s zero-waste approach to promoting operational efficiency and commitment to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has seen Egbin Power Plc invest in an oxygen bottling facility on the plant to harness the oxygen generated as a by-product of the plant cooling mechanism.
Egbin Power supplies oxygen, a key ingredient in the fight for life in the ICU, freely to medical facilities in Lagos State and the FCT, Abuja Nigeria, through Fortitude Children’s home, the largest orphanage in Nigeria.
Sahara’s Covid-19 interventions also include the donation of personal protective equipment (PPE), driving Covid-19 awareness and education in sub-Saharan Africa through educational literature in indigenous languages across various countries and leading the delivery of the 300-bed Thisday Dome Isolation and Treatment Centre and donation of medical equipment, including fully-equipped world-class Intensive Care Units, to the centre and other medical facilities across Nigeria.
“For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it if only we’re brave enough to be it.”……Amanda Gorman
The sole objective of the monetary authorities of every country is to make policies to achieve price stability by ensuring a stable rise in GDP, keeping the unemployment rate low, and maintaining inflation and foreign exchange rates in a predictable range.
The year 2020 took the global economy by surprise and left all the monetary authorities of each country scrambling to create and implement policies that would help reduce the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its economy.
Most central banks adopted a dovish stance, in a bid to support a fast-dwindling economy, whilst some like that of Nigeria, who adopted a dovish stance as well, used unorthodox means to try to achieve price stability.
As we approach the end of the first month of the new year, the world’s hope for a faster recovery remains threatened by the continued spread of the Covid-19 virus with news of new strains emerging (smile at your screen if you cannot wait for this thing to be over).
Nevertheless, we are hopeful and optimistic as various countries have begun vaccination on their citizens. However, it is that time of the year again where all eyes will be on the global monetary authorities to set the tone for the direction of the global economy this year (May the Almighty God help them).
With the resurgence in the Covid-19 virus, vaccine hopes, and concerns of a second lockdown restriction, the key question remains, “do they Cut, Hike, or Hold rates?”
Maintaining a Dovish Stance…
Toward the end of the year 2020, The U.S Federal Reserve officials renewed their “wedding vows” to the market as they signalled that interest rates would stay at their current near-zero level until at least 2023. With the Fed’s January meeting coming up this week, we anticipate no change in interest-rate policy or the pace of asset purchase (QE).
US FED FUND RATE (5-Year Trend)
Global central banks are still keen on supporting the fragile growth trajectory. The global economy has been on over the last three years as the ECB also maintained its dovish stance last week, leaving the policy rate unchanged and promise to continue to buy up to EUR1.85 trillion ($2.25 trillion) of eurozone bonds through March 2022 under a plan unveiled in December.
We expect this new round of global monetary easing to have a positive impact on emerging markets with good fundamentals and attractive yields, barring any negative idiosyncratic factors.
Angola Yield Curve
Nigeria Yield Curve
Curbing Inflation or Supporting the Economy?
The Nigerian monetary policy committee is set to announce the first monetary stance for the year 2021. The question is, “which of the macroeconomic headwinds will the monetary authority be looking to address, spiralling inflation that led to price instability or the Covid-19 economic disruption?”
The Central Bank of Nigeria left its monetary policy rate unchanged at 11.5% during its November meeting. The decision reflected the priority to further stimulate a contracting economy despite quickening inflation, which has remained above the Bank’s target range for over five years now.
MPR (5-Year Trend)
Based on the body language of the committee, we expect the MPC to remain focused on the growth trajectory of the economy, as it has stated in its past meetings that the spiralling inflation is largely structural, with bottlenecks amplified by the pandemic and efforts to manage the exchange rate.
Scenario Plays…
Scenario 1: The MPC decides we need more cuts as they believe this will further boost production and support economic growth. This will ease the bearish sentiment in the fixed income market and renew the buying interest in the equities market.
Scenario 2: They decide to play the waiting game and watch all measures taken last year continue to run its cause. This will have no significant impact on the market as fixed-income yields will continue its upward trend and buy an interest in the equities will be tied to how long the low yields will last.
Scenario 3: They decide enough is enough and increase interest rates with the hope of curbing inflation and attracting FPIs back into the fixed income market. This will lead to a knee-jerk reaction in both the equities and fixed income market.
How did Spider Solitaire Masters card games become so popular? It’s a common question these days but nobody seems to have a concrete answer. However, now you have an opportunity to find the truth by yourself by trying to play it! Even if don’t know what’s the sense of this game and what are the basic rules, read on because all this information is disclosed below. Let’s start!
Short Overview of the History of Spider solitaire
Microsoft is always credited with popularizing the modern game variations by adding some of the most basic versions to its Windows platform. Thus, Spider solitaire card games evoke a pleasant memory of those who used to play it at the end of the 20th century since it became in-built in the Windows OS in 1990.
But, traditional Spider solitaire card games have been there from the 18th century and they were played with physical cards. Turns out many individuals have been enjoying Spider solitaire for a long time, with Germany touted as the most likely place of origin.
With the current technological advancements, Solitaire can now enjoy their favourite Spider solitaire versions from many websites in the comfort of their homes. The progress made with the digital revolution implies that players can now gain easy access to their favourite options, updated game types, and tons of customizable features to go with it. You can just download an app on your smartphone and start playing!
Is Spider Solitaire Game Difficult?
Excellence in Spider solitaire comes with practice. Don’t worry, even the best players today were amateurs at some point. Moreover, the rules of classic Spider solitaire are simple, and playing it is an exciting learning curve. Today, you can find tons of resources online that provide Spider solitaire collections together with gaming rules and tips.
There are also countless websites targeting beginners who may want to play Spider solitaire as their favourite pastime but with no place to start. Of course, the complexity level depends on the version of the game as well. There are more than a hundred Spider solitaire variations, so choose the most interesting one, master the basics and specifics, and you’ll succeed.
How to Play Classic Spider solitaire?
Spider Solitaire or Patience is a single-player card game that generally requires a standard 52-card deck. A Spider solitaire online game is only won if you manage to arrange the cards in the tableau in sequences from Kings to Aces using a stockpile as well and build four foundation piles according to suits from Aces to Kings. Notice that in some apps you can use hints and the re-do function to simplify the process.
Which Are the Most Popular Spider Solitaire Game Types?
Even though Microsoft only focuses on a few basic types of free Spider solitaire games, there are many other variations available. Still, it’s better to start with the most common options to understand the basics. These versions include Klondike, Yukon, Spider, Pyramid, FreeCell, and TriPeaks.
Conclusion
Gaming technology is one of the greatest inventions of our time. And now it’s easy to see why Spider solitaire card games continue to hit new heights every year. It won’t be long before we see yet another premium release that gives an impression of modern gaming platforms with an easy to use interface. Since you are familiarized with the key principles, choose the most suitable Spider solitaire source and game and try your hand at this puzzle!
Nigeria Economic Outlook 2021: 2021 is already running away but the level of uncertainty remains elevated. The known unknowns are still relatively high. The Nigerian economy is expected to recover mainly in the second half with positive growth of 1-1.2% but the problem is three words… Inflation! Inflation!! Inflation!!!
How does Nigeria get rid of this cankerworm? Interest rates are 18% below food inflation, Diaspora remittances are being exchanged at multiple rates and government debt is still a burden.
The reality is that the road to recovery will be hard and uneven while the pace will depend on the effectiveness of fiscal, monetary and trade policies. In spite of the economic recovery, the resolution of multidimensional poverty remains the major challenge.
The great news is that oil prices are stable above $50, which is 25% above the 2021 budget benchmark of $40pb. This should support the reflationary budget of N13.59trn narrow the fiscal deficit, and reduce external imbalances.
Will the 50% return witnessed in the Nigerian equities market in 2020 repeat itself in 2021? You can bet your bottom dollar the answer is NO. You will be lucky to come back from Broad Street with your shirt on. The looming shift to higher interest rates will increase yields on fixed income instruments and lower the demand for equities. That inverse relationship is a well-known economic principle.
In this Year Ahead report styled “Inflection, Reflation & Destitution”, the FDC Think-Tank gives a glimpse into the rest of 2021 with some economic forecasts on the recovery.
Nigeria’s leading tech-enabled automotive trading platform, Cars45 and last-mile delivery service provider, Gokada, have announced a partnership to provide Lagosians with more options to get their parcels delivered across the state at a cheaper price within the same day.
This is in furtherance of Cars45’s mantra which is to build the commercial infrastructure that allows for speedy and efficient exchange of value across the automotive value chain. This partnership was announced at a signing ceremony which took place at the Cars45 headquarters, Alausa, Lagos, on Thursday, January 21, 2021.
L-R: Mobolaji Odumosu, Head, Technology, Cars45; Sanya Chawla, Head, Special Projects, Gokada; Oluwashola Adekoya, Group Head, Marketing and Communications, Cars45; Nikhil Goel, President, Gokada at the signing ceremony announcing a strategic partnership between Cars45 and Gokada, on Thursday, January 21, 2020, in Lagos, Nigeria. | www.brandspurng.com
This new relationship will allow Cars45 to further improve its customer experience by enabling select retail outlets to serve as delivery or collections hubs for Gokada. Gokada customers will, in turn, be able to access and enjoy a rich bouquet of Cars45’s services at select retail outlets.
It should be noted that the current spread of COVID-19 virus in Nigeria and the rest of the world necessitates more purposeful and deliberate movement and delivery of products and services across the country.
L-R: Sanya Chawla, Head, Special Projects, Gokada; Oluwashola Adekoya, Group Head, Marketing and Communications, Cars45; Nikhil Goel, President, Gokada; Precious Adesina-Ola, National Head, Center Operations, Cars45 at the signing ceremony announcing a strategic partnership between Cars45 and Gokada, on Thursday, January 21, 2020, in Lagos, Nigeria. | www.brandspurng.com
According to Precious Adesina-Ola, National Head, Center Operations, Cars45,
“as a value-driven business, Cars45 has become synonymous with creating opportunities for stimulating economic development as well as delightful consumer experiences within the nation’s auto industry.
This partnership reinforces the premium we place on continuously providing value and convenience to our customers. Our retail touchpoints provide a range of excellent products and services that we believe Gokada customers will take advantage of when delivering their parcels.”
Cars45 is present in over 50 locations across 11 states in Nigeria in addition to its operations in Kenya and Ghana.
On the reason behind the partnership, “We want to be closer to our customers and make our deliveries faster and accessible. At Gokada, we think about the convenience of our customers first and are constantly experimenting with new ideas to ensure maximum satisfaction. We are proud to partner with Cars45 and welcome them to the Gokada family. We hope to expand to other Cars45 centres across Lagos soon”,said Sanya Chawla, Head of Special Projects, Gokada.
Furthermore, Oluwashola Adekoya, Group Head, Marketing and Communications, Cars45 noted that
“We are excited to work with one of Nigeria’s most efficient and trusted courier delivery solution providers to enhance last-mile services. Transparency, Customer Satisfaction, and Innovation are engrained in our DNA therefore, we believe strongly that consumers will get the best of both worlds under this initiative as it leverages Cars45’s network of conveniently located retail outlets.”
Cars45 has been at the forefront of transformation in the Nigerian automotive industry, through customer-led and industry-driven initiatives. It is over 6,000-member Autopreneur programme developed in 2019, is one of the factors contributing to increased car-ownership in Nigeria. Also, Cars45’s Franchise programme is assisting dealerships across Nigeria to generate more revenue.
Lagos, Nigeria. 25th January 2021. The Rotary District 9110 Committee on Blindness Prevention embarked on a 3-day “Save Our Sight” Mission to Ota, Ogun State and performed free cataract surgeries on 100 Residents of Lagos and Ogun States. The surgeries took place at the Ace Medicare Clinics, Ota, Ogun State from January 14-17 2021.
The surgeries which were sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Eko Atlantic (the Lead Sponsor); Gbagada; Agege and Ota. The project which cost over N4million naira is geared towards depicting the need for a Rotary Eye hospital in a community between both states.
(L-R) PAG Dr Wole Kukoyi, Medical Director of Ace Medicare Clinics, Ota, Ogun State and Committee Member, Rotary District 9110 Committee on Blindness Prevention; Dr Basirat Giwa, Committee Chairman, Rotary District 9110 Committee on Blindness Prevention; Mrs Olusola Kukoyi, Chief Matron of Ace Medicare Clinics; Governor Bola Oyebade, The District Governor, Rotary District 9110 and PDG Dr Dele Balogun, Committee member during the Free Cataract Surgeries on 100 Residents of Lagos and Ogun States organized by Rotary District 9110 Committee on Blindness Prevention at Ace Medicare Clinics, Ota, Ogun State during the weekend. | www.brandspurng.com
According to the Committee Chair, PP Dr Basirat Giwa said, “As an organization that is interested in humanitarian services; the District Committee on Blindness Prevention initiated the process of selecting beneficiaries of the project in November 2020. After series of medical screenings, those who benefitted were selected and notified that they have been scheduled for the surgery.”
While commending the committee, the District Governor Bola Oyebade noted that the theme for the Rotary Year is Opportunities and he is delighted to see the partnering clubs collaborating to restore the sight of 100 persons. As a humanitarian organization noted for doing good, the beneficiaries will be grateful for the restoration of their sights and our charge to them is to reciprocate good deeds in various ways.
According to him, “The Committee has done a good job by giving in their talent, time and treasure to restore the hope of these Nigerians. They have made the District proud. The ultimate aim of this Mission is to establish a Rotary Eye Clinic that will provide all-year-round quality and affordable Ophthalmic Services to the poor and vulnerable.”
Speaking on the behalf of the beneficiaries, Mrs Folashade Alawode expressed her appreciation to the team for helping to restore their sights. She noted that the process of selecting the beneficiaries was devoid any favouritism and they were well taken care of all through the period of being hospitalized. “After the surgery, my eye pads were removed, my eyes were dressed and I was given appropriate medications and instructions.”
Other members of the Committee include Rotns Dele Balogun; Abioye Giwa; Babatunde Awoyemi; Favour Madu; Airen Efosa and Fatai Oluyadi. Others are Rotns Dr Wole Kukoyi; Niyi Adedokun;Sanjeev Tandon; Tunde Solu; Victor Edomwande and Toun Agbe Davies.
Other partnering institutions are Eye Institute of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital that assembled the team of Ophthalmologists, Ophthalmic Nurses and other support staff and Mouka Foam that donated 100 Hospital Mattresses.
The FGN bond market remained firmly bearish across the curve, with little demand seen despite the 2030s and 2045s bond coupon inflow hitting the system today. Slight action was seen on short-dated bonds, albeit in light volumes, with trades settling around 6.20% and 8.15% for the 2024s and 2027s bonds, respectively.
The 2049s bond lost the most ground in price terms on the day, hitting the double-digit mark of 10.00% in late trades, the highest level seen since August 2020. Overall, yields expanded by another c.14bps across the sovereign curve compared to Friday’s closing.
We expect market demand for bonds to stay muted while attention shifts to the outcome of the first MPC meeting for the year scheduled for tomorrow, 26th January 2021.
Treasury Bills
The treasury bills space opened the new week on a bearish note as offshore participants continue to scramble to exit their last OMO winnings as they look to position ahead of this week’s auction.
The weak appetite for bills was further fuelled by low system liquidity as traders sell off to fund their cash obligations. The flurry of offers was seen across the OMO bills curve, albeit the 18th January 2021 bill remained the most attractive of all bills offered, with few trades crossed at 3.70% at the close of business.
We also saw a few order-driven requests for mid-dated NTB bills; however, no trades were executed as the bid/offer rates remained wide at 0.65%/0.35% all day, making it difficult to execute trades.
We expect a slight uptick in trading activities as OMO maturities of over N190BN hits the system tomorrow.
Money Markets
OBB and OVN rates dropped significantly by 425bps, closing the day at 5.50% and 6.50%, as liquidity eased due to bond coupon inflows of c. N38bn hitting the banking system. System liquidity is estimated at c—N60Bn as at the close of business today.
We expect rates to ease further during tomorrow’s session as inflows from OMO maturities of over N190BN is credited into the system.
FX Market
The FX space remained poorly supplied, with rates depreciating across all market segments for a 2nd consecutive session. The IEFX segments traded very leanly as market turnover dropped by an additional 10% (c.$39m), with the rate closing the day at N394.50/$1.
The parallel market also lost an additional N3.00 on both the cash and transfer market as demands from businesses and market players continue to peak in the new year.
Eurobonds
The NIGERIA Sovereigns opened the new week on a quiet note, with little volumes passing through during the session. The bulk of market action was noted at the curve’s belly, especially for the 2027s-2032s maturities, which shed an average of c.4bps D/D, while yields compressed by an average of c.3bps across the benchmark curve.
The NIGERIA Corps, on the other hand, was bearish for a larger part of the session supported by actions from participants, seeking to book some profits at the early start of the week. The Zenith 2022s was the major loser of all the tracked papers closing the day +c.38bps.
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